Journaling every day is a habit that comes with a lot of great benefits, like dealing with emotions, focusing on goals, and developing creativity. If you don’t know where to start, this simple template can help you get the ball rolling.

Windows: There are lots of great reasons to keep a journal, but if you’re looking for the perfect app to help you start, keep your entries organized, add photos and links, and even make it easy to go back and see what you’ve posted in the past, Journaley is a free Windows app that does the trick nicely.

Some of the most influential people in history kept detailed journals of their lives. Those journals served two purposes: a permanent record for posterity, and cathartic release for the people writing them. Even if you don't think you need either, keeping a journal has great benefits you can enjoy immediately. Here's…

iOS: Keeping a regular journal of your life has both personaland professional benefits, but it can be difficult to keep up with every day. Narrato is a new app that aims to make it easy, and it starts by tracking your mood, then linking with some of your social networks to build a complete picture of your daily life.

Dear Lifehacker,
You've talked about keeping a work diary and an awesomeness journal, and I'm sold. One question: How can I set up my journal so I can edit and update it online on my phone or laptop without the world seeing it? I want a diary, not a blog!

It's difficult enough to stay motivated and upbeat without the rest of the world weighing on your shoulders. If you're feeling unmotivated or starting to feel a bit down, Zack Shapiro, an engineer at previously mentionedTaskrabbit has a suggestion for you: take some time each day to write down three positive things…

More than a few studies have shown that people who actually keep track of what they eat on paper, in an app, or in some other record, have better success at losing weight, managing their diet, controlling their portions, and sticking to healthy habits.

If your job is like most, the emphasis is on the big wins—projects completed, big accomplishments, clients landed. Unfortunately, it's not those big wins that keep us motivated and happy. The small wins: bugs fixed, obstacles overcome, issues resolved, are the ones that keep us going, and Harvard Business School…

Keeping a journal can be fun, but it's hard sometimes to keep up with recording all your memories or important thoughts. Brilliant webapp automating service If This Then That (IFTTT) can create an automatic journal for you by archiving your events, pics, and social media posts to Evernote.

iOS/Android: Private journal service Penzu has come a long way since we last discussed it. At its core, the service still gives you a private online diary that you can access anywhere, but today the service introduced new iOS and Android apps to give you access to your journal on the go.

A diary or log of the day's events at the office can provide a valuable record of the things that went well, mistakes you made and how you addressed them, and successes worth highlighting in your next performance review.

There were two distinct trends highlighted by last week's Hive Five. The biggest one was that Lifehacker readers, despite being a very techno-saavy crowd and first-adopters of many technologies, turned to analog means for recording their private thoughts. Pen and paper swept the Hive Five by a wide margin, whether…